Politics
Confirmation Hearings Open in a Test of Trump’s Hold on Senate G.O.P.
The battle over President-elect Donald J. Trump’s cabinet choices will escalate this week with Senate confirmation hearings set for more than a dozen prospective nominees, who will face a barrage of questions from Democrats hoping to enlist Republicans in knocking at least a few out of contention.
The most high-profile and potentially contentious hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, when the Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to consider the expected nomination of Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News personality and combat veteran, for secretary of defense. Senate committees have also set public reviews for the choice for attorney general and those tapped to run the State, Treasury, Homeland Security, Energy, Interior, Transportation and Veterans Affairs Departments and the C.I.A., among others.
Despite criticism of the backgrounds and experience of some of his picks, Mr. Trump has urged Senate Republicans to stay united and quickly deliver the team he has selected in the opening days of the administration. How the G.O.P. responds will provide an early test in the relationship.
Mr. Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate would like to be have at least some officials in place within hours of his swearing-in next Monday, but while top Republicans say they are committed to rapidly advancing his picks, the chances of more than a few being ready for votes on Inauguration Day are low.
“The president ought to have his team in place early, especially his national security team,” Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said on Sunday. “If Democrats try to drag out the process, the Republican Conference is ready to work around the clock, including weekends and nights, to get them in place.”
Mr. Hegseth has faced intense scrutiny because of accusations of sexual misconduct and excessive drinking, as well as his acknowledgment of reaching a financial settlement with a woman who accused him of sexual assault at a conservative convention in 2017. He has also faced criticism for comments about limiting the role of women in the military and will be pressed about his handling of two veterans advocacy groups that ran into financial trouble.
“Your past behavior and rhetoric indicates your inability to effectively lead this organization and properly support our service members,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who sits on the committee, wrote to Mr. Hegseth last week in a 33-page letter with more than 70 questions for Mr. Hegseth.
After some initial unease, Senate Republicans have become more confident about Mr. Hegseth’s chances for confirmation as he has made personal visits to Senate offices to address Republican concerns.
“As people hear him, I think they will gain more confidence in his abilities,” said Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota.
But Democrats on the panel are already raising alarm that they have not been able to view an F.B.I. background check on Mr. Hegseth — information that so far has been shared only with the panel’s chairman and senior Democrat — and may not receive complete information about his past.
Though confirmation hearings can produce drama, it is rare for nominees to be defeated on the floor. Just one has been rejected in the last 36 years, when John Tower, a former Republican senator from Texas, fell short of the votes for secretary of defense in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Senators traditionally tend to give presidents deference in their top administration choices, and those who run into trouble typically withdraw before a vote.
Democrats intend to use the hearings to press the nominees on how they will follow through on G.O.P. campaign pledges to help the working class while showcasing serious issues with the candidates in hopes of chipping away at Republican support.
“We want to show who they really are,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said in an interview. “Some of them carry a lot of baggage.”
While past presidents were able to get at least some cabinet members on board on Day 1, Democratic resistance and the Senate’s byzantine rules will make winning immediate confirmation of members of Mr. Trump’s team very difficult. Changes in confirmation procedures and intensifying partisanship over nominees have significantly diminished chances for first-day approval even of those in the national security realm.
For instance, President Barack Obama saw six cabinet nominees confirmed on Jan. 20, 2009, while Robert M. Gates was carried over as secretary of defense. A handful of others, including Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, were confirmed within a few days. At that time, nominees were theoretically subject to a 60-vote threshold, forcing Mr. Obama and his predecessors to make selections more able to clear that hurdle.
In 2013, Democrats changed Senate rules so that nominees for administration slots and judicial seats could be confirmed on a straight majority vote with no threat of a 60-vote requirement, allowing presidents to name candidates who could prevail on party-line votes but increasing the chances for partisan division.
In 2021, Mr. Trump was able to win two cabinet confirmations on Jan. 20, filling the top defense and homeland security posts, as Democrats cooperated in filling key national security slots for the new administration with military generals boasting significant experience.
President Biden was able to win the confirmation of just one top official on Jan. 20, 2021, when Avril D. Haines was approved as director of national intelligence. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin III was confirmed two days later and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Jan. 26. Democrats say the nominee they are most inclined to clear the way for this year is Senator Marco Rubio, their Republican colleague from Florida, for secretary of state.
Part of the issue is that nominations cannot become official until the president takes office, meaning Mr. Trump can submit formal paperwork only after he is sworn in. The Senate is allowed to hold hearings, but clearing prospective nominees for the floor requires some Democratic cooperation.
Democrats would be highly unlikely to provide much help for nominees such as Mr. Hegseth. Republicans would then have to hold committee votes and follow floor procedures that will consume time, as well. Hearings for other contentious nominees such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary and Tulsi Gabbard for intelligence director are pending.
In the run-up to the hearings, Democrats and some Republicans have objected to proceeding because not all the traditional ethics and financial paperwork has been available. They have also pressed for access to F.B.I. background reports. Republicans have said that they expect most of the requirements to be met before any votes and that they intend to fulfill their duty of providing advice and consent.
“I think there is a real desire to move these through as quickly as possible,” Mr. Rounds said. “But we are going to do our job, too.”
By Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Gilad Thaler, Jon Miller, Stephanie Swart, Rafaela Balster, Whitney Shefte and Nikolay Nikolov
May 29, 2026
Politics
Federal judge orders Trump’s name removed from Kennedy Center, says only Congress can rename it
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A federal judge on Friday ordered that President Donald Trump’s name be removed from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, said the iconic venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress, ruling that the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees overstepped its “statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming” the building.
As part of his ruling, the Trump administration will be required to take down all physical signage bearing Trump’s name and eliminate any references to a “Trump-Kennedy Center” from official materials.
TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER’S BOARD VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO APPROVE $257M RENOVATIONS AND TWO-YEAR CLOSURE
A sign is displayed on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts building. (Getty Images)
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” Cooper wrote. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
Roma Daravi, the Trump Kennedy Center vice president of public relations, said the board plans to appeal the decision.
“We will review the decision carefully though the reality remains — the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration – a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges,” Daravi said. “With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy.”
The ruling was part of a lawsuit filed by U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
BOARD VOTES KENNEDY CENTER TO BE RENAMED ‘TRUMP-KENNEDY CENTER,’ LEAVITT SAYS
President Donald Trump stands in the presidential box during a tour of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on March 17, 2025. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s name must be removed from he iconic venue. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
Cooper previously denied a request for a preliminary injunction filed by a preservation group to block the planned two-year closure of the Kennedy Center for a rehabilitation project.
Trump secured $257 million from Congress as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to address disrepair and deferred maintenance of the Kennedy Center, which critics say has been neglected and mismanaged before Trump intervened.
The funds appropriated by Congress are spent on maintenance, repairs, security, and capital projects related to the building and site.
Beatty, who serves as an ex officio member of the board, praised Friday’s ruling.
“Today’s ruling rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,” Beatty said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution.”
Workers install Donald J. Trump signage above the existing Kennedy Center sign in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 19, 2025. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
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Trump’s name was added to the venue last December following a unanimous decision by the board. In February 2025, Trump was elected chairman of the Kennedy Center board after removing 18 trustees appointed by former President Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON — A framework agreement to end the U.S. war with Iran is all but settled, pending sign-off from the presidents of the two warring sides, President Trump said Friday, projecting optimism that a deal could finally be at hand.
Yet doubt cast a shadow over the diplomatic process entering the weekend as Trump faced a politically fraught decision to enter an agreement that would invariably require significant concessions to Tehran.
The negotiations have faced severe headwinds in recent days, with both sides accusing the other of violating a fragile ceasefire that has largely stopped the fighting since April.
On his Truth Social site, Trump said he had summoned his top aides to the White House Situation Room to decide on the deal.
The agreement would see an end to the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports and the removal of Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, an international waterway through which 20% of the world’s energy supply passes each day. The strait, Trump wrote, will reopen with “no tolls” for “unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions.”
And “Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb,” Trump wrote, noting that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient for nuclear weapons, “will be unearthed by the United States (which, it is agreed, is the only Country, along with China, with the mechanical capability of doing so!), in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED.”
“No money will be exchanged, until further notice,” he added.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said the deal would require Iran to disavow the continuation of its domestic nuclear program — a diplomatic feat never before achieved throughout a quarter-century of international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear work.
It is unclear whether Tehran would go that far. And Iran’s negotiators expressed defiance on Friday, stating that there was “no trust in guarantees or words” from the American side.
“No step will be taken before the other side acts first,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament. “We do not gain concessions through dialogue, but through missiles.”
It remains unclear when the Trump administration would ease sanctions on Iran, how extensive that relief would be, or what form it would take — questions that fueled Republican criticism of the Obama-era nuclear deal more than a decade ago.
The working diplomatic document would formally extend the existing ceasefire for 60 days, allowing for a more detailed negotiation to take place over Iran’s nuclear program. But the truce as it currently stands is on perilous ground. Iran launched a ballistic missile on Thursday at Kuwait, a close U.S. ally, after American forces took “defensive” actions against Iranian missile launchers and mine-laying boats it had launched in the strait.
The war has proved historically unpopular with the American public, and has seen oil prices soar since the U.S. military, in partnership with Israel, launched its first strikes against Iran in February.
Bessent said he is hopeful that oil prices would drop quickly once an agreement is signed. But industry analysts say the effects of the war on the oil market could last for months, if not years, with the stability of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz now in question for commercial shippers.
While oil has dropped to under $100 a barrel, markets appeared skittish on Friday over the prospects for a deal, with mixed messages appearing to emerge out of the region.
It is also unclear whether a U.S. agreement with Iran would in any way bind Israel’s hands in its military operations, either in Iran or in Lebanon, where an Iranian proxy militia, Hezbollah, has vowed to keep up the fight.
Israel has ramped up strikes against Hezbollah targets in recent days, jeopardizing a delicate ceasefire negotiated with the Lebanese government, a deal encouraged by the Trump administration in order to grease the wheels for its talks with Tehran.
Trump has been uncharacteristically silent on the prospects of an agreement in recent days, expressing cautious optimism in limited exchanges with reporters.
“It’s hard to say exactly when or if the president’s going to sign,” Vice President JD Vance, who has led the U.S. diplomatic team, told reporters, noting that “the nuclear stuff” is still subject to negotiation. “We’re going back and forth on a couple of language points.”
“I do think that we’ve made a lot of progress here,” Vance added. “Hopefully we’ll continue to make progress, and the president will be in a position where he can endorse the agreement. But obviously, that’s still TBD.”
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